LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Demetrus Liggins filed a formal whistleblower-reprisal and education-accountability complaint Thursday with the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability, alleging the Fayette County Board of Education retaliated against him for reporting financial irregularities.
The 26-page complaint, which includes 18 documentary exhibits, was filed with the state office that investigates allegations of fraud, waste, mismanagement, political influence, and abuse of authority in Kentucky school districts.
The complaint asks the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability to investigate the board's removal of Liggins from active service approximately one week after he made written disclosures and issued corrective directives concerning possible misuse of FCPS-paid time, unauthorized remote work, deficient attendance controls, preferential treatment, and overlapping public employment.
The filing presents FCPS's own June 24 response to Liggins's Open Meetings Act complaint as what his attorneys call a "smoking-gun admission."
According to the complaint, the board's published June 10 agenda announced only a closed session to discuss a supposed "resignation notice." FCPS now acknowledges the board also privately considered undisclosed information concerning alleged conduct that it says could lead to discipline and the appointment of replacement leadership.
FCPS further acknowledges that Liggins had stated before the meeting that his earlier communication "was not a resignation," that he remained superintendent, and that he wanted the special meeting canceled.
Immediately after the closed session, the board placed Liggins on administrative leave, retained VanAntwerp Attorneys to investigate him, and named Dr. Bill Bradford as acting superintendent.
"The Board's letter finally admits the sequence," said Amos N. Jones, counsel for Liggins. "FCPS knew Dr. Liggins denied resigning. It proceeded anyway, considered undisclosed accusations in private, removed him, installed another superintendent, and only then commissioned the investigation now being used to defend the removal. That is not an investigation preceding action. It is an investigation following action already taken. And that's why fifteen names are named for targeted interviews in this new investigation of the Board and its exponents."
The complaint alleges that public dissemination compounded the reprisal by advancing a new disciplinary narrative while omitting the protected disclosures that immediately preceded the board's actions.
The complaint asks the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability to investigate both the undisclosed allegations against Liggins and the suspected waste, political influence, public-employment irregularities, and whistleblower retaliation he reported. It also seeks immediate preservation and independent examination of the VanAntwerp investigation, protection against further reprisal, and referral to other state authorities where warranted.
"No public employee should be removed for insisting that public money, compensated time, leave, and political influence be examined honestly," Jones said. "Dr. Liggins is the whistleblower. The Board's attempt to portray the accountability official as the offender is the reversal this state complaint now places before an independent authority."
Liggins remains the contracted superintendent of Fayette County Public Schools through June 30, 2029.
The Fayette County Board of Education released the following statement to LEX News in response to the complaint Liggins filed:
"The Fayette County Board of Education remains focused on serving our students and maintaining stability across the District. The Board will continue to follow the law and make decisions based on facts and the best interests of our schools and community. Because these matters involve personnel issues, potential legal considerations, and ongoing Board processes, it would be inappropriate to litigate them in the press. Our focus remains on our students, our educators, and the successful, stable operation of Fayette County Public Schools."
Read the full complaint below:
